A person's respiratory rate measures the number of breaths taken within a predetermined time period, typically 60 seconds. The respiration rate is one of the vital signs commonly used in clinical practices. Several pathological conditions such as sleep apnea and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease are associated with respiratory dysfunction and/or abnormal respiratory patterns. A person's age, physical condition, and medical history all have a direct effect on the ability to maintain a normal respiratory rate. Precise monitoring of a person's respiratory rate is crucial to identifying potential markers in the person's diagnosis and prognosis in various clinical settings.
Conventional methods of respiratory rate measurements include listening to lung sounds using stethoscopes, spirometry, capnography, inductance plethysomography, impedance pneumography, and thermistors. The drawbacks of these conventional methods include being expensive, invasive, cumbersome, inefficient, and inaccurate. In addition, these intrusive devices also interfere with natural physiological breathing patterns. Moreover, these conventional methods, while suitable for point-of-care applications, are not suitable for remote sensing, telehealth monitoring, and home-based, long-term monitoring applications.
These issues limit the continuous remote monitoring of a person's respiratory rate. Therefore, there is a strong need for a cost-effective solution that overcomes the above issues by non-invasively calculating respiratory rate in real-time using sensor devices. The present invention addresses such a need.